“You can’t change anything from the outside in. Standing apart, looking down, talking the overview, you see pattern. What’s wrong, what’s missing. You want to fix it. But you can’t patch it. You have to be in it, weaving it. You have to be part of the weaving.”
You are warmly invited to join us for a special six month course with the glorious guide Ursula K. Le Guin. A great wise woman, her stories, poems and essays have touched and transformed lives around the world. Each month we will read one of the five interconnected short stories from Five Ways to Forgiveness and enjoy a Sunday afternoon Zoom call to discuss the themes of forgiveness, reconciliation and social justice that speak to us from the book.
Why forgiveness? It’s something that many of us find challenging and might find helpful to explore together. Some say that forgiveness is essential to healing and transformation. What do you think? Together we can explore.
Each session will also include gentle heart meditations and other practices to support our open-hearted and open-minded explorations. In the sixth month, we will look at what changes we’ve seen in our lives over the course and how we can support the ongoing healing of the world, including ourselves. All welcome!
Course dates - Sundays at either 11am-12:30pm or 4-5:30pm U.K. time
(Please note the second time has been added for our friends in Australia. Anyone is welcome to join either group.)
13th October 2024 - discussing the introduction and ‘Betrayals’
17th November 2024 - discussing '‘Forgiveness Day’
8th December 2024 - discussing ‘A Man of the People’
5th January 2025 - discussing ‘‘A Woman’s Liberation’
2nd Feburary 2025 - discussing ‘Old Music and the Slave Women’
2nd March 2025 - exploring forgiveness, healing and the future of our group.
Please don’t worry if you can’t attend them all. Your participation is warmly welcome when you are able to be with us.
Course Fees
Ways to Forgiveness is offered on a sliding scale (starting at £0) to make it accessible to all. Your contributions support our work to uplift and inspire others for personal and social change. Additionally, 25% of proceeds will go directly to support the charity work of Heart Of Living Yoga.
Course Leaders
For those who don’t know Ursula K. Le Guin, she is a world renowned novelist, poet & essayist who’s writing has inspired and and touched millions of readers. Her work is literally life changing for many of us. Best known for her classic works of fantasy and science fiction, Le Guin was a child of an anthropologist and a great writer. From an early age, she knew that the dominant culture is not the only way that people can live - and she continues to encourage us all to see that our lives can change, our societies can change. A committed Taoist, she might say that real change doesn’t happen through force or demand, but through wu wei - action without action. Or, as the yogis might say, through selfless service - including radical self care - for the benefit of all.
The course will be led by Vishwam Gurudas who has been reading and studying the work of Ursula Le Guin for many years. He even published a love letter to her in honour of her 80th birthday. Vishwam is a Heart Minister, Heart Of Living Yoga Teacher and Heart Meditation Facilitator as well as a student of permaculture, healthier relationships and social change. He holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Edinburgh and is much happier as a yoga teacher than he was as an academic.
Vishwam carrying water for a Heart Blessing of the Waters ceremony at Heart Festival inspired by the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Photo by Lumiere Photography.